יום שני, י״ג אב תשפ״וMonday, July 27, 2026
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Asaf Romirowsky PhD is the executive director for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME).
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A responsible policy would be to divert some of UNRWAresources, if not most of them, to the escalating refugee crisis gripping Europe.
Biden is following the Obama administration's playbook of "tough love" vis-à-vis Israel, rushing to embrace Iran and a perilous nuclear deal that has terrified Arabs and Israelis alike.
Ever since the 1960s, the Western academy has been churning out “scholar-activist-warriors” who carry the mantle of activism in lieu of scholarship. The result is generations of well-meaning yet ill-informed and brainwashed students, especially with regard to the Middle East. So warped are the perceptions of Western academics of both Israel and its enemies that even American Jewish rabbinical students are effectively shilling for an Islamist terror organization committed to killing Jews wherever they are.
As we observed during the US presidential election of 2020, the presumption that tolerance and pluralism connote openness and acceptance is false. American Jews in particular have once again been forced to choose between their “pluralistic” tolerance and their Jewish identity.
"The struggle for Palestine" has long been an axiomatic slogan in the Arab-Palestinian narrative and continues to be used to this day to galvanize the masses—but as the Middle East changes, the power of the phrase may be diminishing.
History and historiography matter. As Winston Churchill astutely said, “Everyone can recognize history when it happens. Everyone can recognize history after it has happened; but only the wise man knows at the moment what is vital and permanent, what is lasting and memorable.” Today, such sensitivity to the value of history is evaporating from the public consciousness. The willful blindness to the instructional value of the past is manifesting itself in attempts to erase history rather than reckon with it responsibly.
Ancient Greece considered athletic ability both a measure of one's value and a cure for social inequality. Athletics were seen as providing a form of moral education, with Plato advocating for the inclusion of women in sports for their moral enrichment and Aristotle calling physical movement an ethical duty. These are ideals after which Western Civilization still strives, but sports—along with all other cultural spheres—have become politicized.
The red and green alliance between socialist and Islamist ideologies strengthened in parallel with the rise of the idea of intersectionality. Both ideologies are heavily laden with hatred of Israel, as became obvious during the latest rioting.
The necessity of a Jewish nation state was a foundational premise for the founding fathers of Zionism, no matter what their political persuasion. That understanding was once shared by most American Jews, particularly in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Today, however, the idea of Jewish statehood is no longer a unifying principle but a wedge issue for American Jews.
The American Jewish Left has once again fallen in line with the Palestinian demand that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict always be conflated to a problem of “occupation,” regardless of facts or history. By leaping to condemn Mike Pompeo’s factual statement that Israeli West Bank “settlements” do not violate international law, American Jewish leftists joined forces with the BDS movement, which views the entirety of Israel as “occupied.”
The Israeli notion of mamlachtiut does not translate well into English. Coming from the word mamlacha, or kingdom, the word suggests the quality of acting in a sovereign-like fashion. David Ben-Gurion used the term when he spoke of the Jews’ usage of military power while exercising caution with their political power. In Israeli history books, the term is conjured every time the nation faces a major juncture that requires individuals and factions to transcend partisan loyalties. Judging from their behavior in the recent elections, Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz both appear to be fuzzy on the meaning of the word.
Take a look at the latest round of elections, and you'll see that the contest wasn't between opposing ideas or even political parties but rather between Bibi Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, two men who seem to agree on almost everything except for which one of them ought to be prime minister.
The recent farce surrounding the non-visit of US Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to Israel highlighted the pernicious self-delusion and zero-sum exclusion of the BDS worldview, which polarizes American politics regarding Israel.
A corruption scandal involving sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation against whistleblowers, and lots of business-class travel has gripped the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). It represents a new low for UNRWA and is an indictment of the idea of an international agency dedicated to a single interest. But it’s also a unique opportunity to see behind the curtain of a billion-dollar UN bureaucracy and phase it out.
Following Harry Truman’s recognition of the Provisional Government of Israel in early 1949, James McDonald was appointed the first US ambassador to the nascent Jewish state. In his memoirs, McDonald discusses Israel-Diaspora relations, which are as central today as they were in the early days of the State. This topic continues to be a source of division: witness the slanderous attacks made by Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar regarding American Jews’ “dual loyalties” and the State of Israel.
A recent report indicates that President Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner suggested that then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other policy makers read a January 2018 Wall Street Journal piece regarding the cutoff of American funding for UNRWA, the international agency for Palestinian ‘refugees.’ As authors of the piece referenced in the leak, we are flattered. With the administration’s much discussed peace plan to be announced in June, let us offer some last minute suggestions.
As the Israeli elections approach, cleavages are revealing themselves in Israeli attitudes towards American Jews. This is unfortunate, as Israel does not exist in a vacuum. A deeper understanding is required of what Jews face outside of Israel. The State of Israel faces many challenges regarding American bipartisan support. Just as Israelis don’t want American Jews to make Israel a partisan issue, Israeli leaders should not push American Jews away.
While the Trump presidency has forced clarity in the US on many domestic and foreign policy issues, the status of Israel in American politics and culture reveals different visions of America itself. One, for lack of a better term, is traditionally American. The other is decidedly “progressive.” But according to both, Israel is mythical and outsized.
The State of Israel, to the social justice warriors, prophets, and congregations is the outcome of all problems that Jews embody. This is antisemitism to the core.
The on-campus BDS movement has benefited greatly from the normalizing of anti-Semitism in the US and around the world. The American university is now in many instances a toxic environment for both students and faculty who have an open mind about Israel. Those faculty who risk their jobs, tenure, and grant funding to speak openly on Israel’s behalf need support now more than ever.
Anti-Semitism is growing increasingly normalized in American society, particularly in progressive circles. One of the most pernicious effects of this normalization relates to the discourse on Israel.
The decision to cut Unrwa's funding corresponds with the Trump administration's broader perspective on foreign policy. Trump insists that foreign aid must benefit the U.S. in a more substantial way than merely sustaining stability. Unrwa does not, and has not
The historical significance of the parallel between contemporary calls to boycott Israeli products and the Hitler movement's economic warfare against German Jewish businesses should not be ignored.
A troubling side effect of the Zionist enterprise is that 70 years after the State of Israel came into being, a wedge has grown between Israelis and the Diaspora, driven by guilt and presumptions of moral superiority.
On the one hand, the Palestinians claim the Israeli “occupation” makes serious negotiations with Israel impossible. On the other, they claim the “occupation” makes the development of local institutions and civil society impossible.
A careful look at the BDS movement shows not legitimate criticism but a movement that is racist and anti-Semitic. Why? BDS clearly targets Israel. Its stated goals vary but all include the "right of return" for Palestinian "refugees." The effort is cloaked to give the impression that ending specific Israeli policies would also end efforts to ostracize Israel. Yet their maximalist demand -- a flood of refugees, which would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish state -- is carefully hidden.
July 24, 2026 
